What does your family do on your first night at Disney?

[WebmasterLeah]

Do you arrive early enough to hit the ground running and head right to the parks? Or do you save a park day on your ticket and hang out at the resort for the night?

Read more here:

http://www.wdwinfo.com/walt-disney-world/what-does-your-family-do-on-your-first-night-at-disney/

 

[GreatLakes]

We don't do parks on arrival day. We check in and then do some resort exploring heading to AKL and exploring the different savannas before dinner at Boma.

 

[disneysteve]

We typically arrive around dinner time so no park for us on arrival day. We usually hang out in our condo/house, go grocery shopping, unpack, and relax from our drive.

 

[NuttyDisneyDad]

We dont ever touch parks on first day.... We always hit up the pool and our fav Disney lounge then Downtown Disney for dinner and drinking and shopping

 

[BlueStarryHat]

If our room is ready we're good girls and put away all of our things first, but then look out! Magic Kingdom here we come! That's our tradition, and we arrive early enough to take full advantage of a day in the park.

 

[gracie89]

For us it's often dinner somewhere nearby and bed. We do have a lengthy flight mind.

 

[TiggerTrigger]

We change it up every trip. We've had trips where we hit the parks immediately and we've had trips where we sort of relax into things.

 

[jpeka65844]

Most trips we get in early and are in the parks by 12:00-1:00 PM. Then it's usually a "special" dinner somewhere and an early night. Ohana,Be Our Guest, etc.....

 

[OKW Lover]

Before moving to FL, Val & I would hit a park as long as we were getting in sometime mid-afternoon. If later in the day we would just to a nice dinner and relax that day. Of course it helped that we had AP's so hitting a park for just a couple of hours wasn't a $$$ issue.

 

[SorcererHeidi]

Unless I have an AP (which hasn't been in a LOOOONG time!) and don't care about "burning a park day" when I get in, my 1st day is usually pretty "chill" and does not involve a park. Checking out/hanging around my (and/other) resorts, maybe DTD, something like that. Also love to go to either Trail's End or maybe Ohana's for dinner, then hang out on the beach for fireworks, or Boma and relax at AKL and visit the animals.

Doesn't really matter - in WDW, it's all good.

 

[SaraMc]

We usually don't go into a park the first day. We normally arrive around noon and most of the time we have been lucky and our room has been ready. We normally do a little pool time with the kids and then head to Downtown Disney and see what trouble we can get in to there.

 

[DaisyMom09]

We try to get there mid-morning and head straight to the Magic Kingdom to ride "It's a Small World". This has become our family tradition when visiting DW. When our rooms are ready, we go back for a nap/unpacking break and then hit a park for the evening. I usually don't make any dining reservations for this day and double up on another day, just in case travel issues arise. It's usually my favorite day of the trip because everyone is so excited and it's a completely spontaneous day with no planning involved!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

We generally do not do a park but rather try to see Wishes from outside the park - most often from the Poly beach after dinner at 'Ohana or Kona

 

[a4matte]

It depends on what time we arrive that day. We typically get a very early flight and end up on property around 10-11AM. If we get there that early we'll try to check into the room (which we can usually do) and then go to the Magic Kingdom to spend some time visiting some favorite rides, checking out stores and watching fireworks later on. If we arrive later in the afternoon it usually means we had flight delays and other issues and tend to do some napping after getting the room. We'll then get up later in the afternoon and meet up with local friends and visit Downtown Disney/Disney Springs.

 

[SplashMountainMom]

Last time we stayed at Pop Century, arrived just as our room was available to occupy. We did a quick clothing change then off to Hollywood Studios for a few hours. We spent the evening hanging out in Downtown Disney, checked out the new shops and had some delicious treats.
It was a great way to ease ourselves into the best family vacation ever!

 

[Daisy62]

We usually spend the day at the poly pool and then have dinner at Ohana. We shop at the Poly gift shops and watch the water parade and fireworks at the beach. Bedtime soon after for day next day at MK.

 

[Mel.I.Am]

We fly from the West Coast so we typically arriving later in the day. But since we try to stay at different resorts for every trip we typically just explore the resort and hang out by the pool.

 

[Tonyz]

Used to do Epcot at night, now we get lunch at the hotel and spend the first night (and first morning after that) at the Magic Kingdom.

 

[ninarobin]

It depends on the length of the trip, for shorter trips I usually try to hit the parks running. For longer trips I usually spend the first night getting settled in at my selected resort and may grab dinner there or at DTD!

 

[disneydad78]

We used to arrive at 11am flight, check in and head over to a park. This year we found a cheaper flight before " our " arrival day to AKL. This trip we are landing at 6pm, getting some dinner heading over to a cheap hotel to relax by the pool and get some sleep. Sleep , yea right, I'll be to excited to sleep! I'll be up at 5am ready to go. We plan on heading over to AKL , check in , give them our luggage then actually for a change , head to Typhon Lagoon for couple hours. Then at 4pm head over to MK for Christmas party!! I can't wait! I'm more excited than the kids.